Weekly eNews for April 19th, 2024 |
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From the Desk of Father Josh |
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Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit… - Acts 4:8
Simon Peter is a complicated fellow. During Jesus’ ministry, he renames Simon as Peter, the “rock” of the movement which becomes the Church. Prior to the growth of the Church, Peter was not always so faithful. At Jesus’ trial, Peter bails and denies Jesus three different times. After Peter experiences the resurrection of Jesus, he goes on to boldly preach the Gospel, heal the sick, and eventually dies a martyr for the sake of Jesus the Christ. Thanks be to God that our worst failure does not define us! Peter went from forsaking Jesus to being one of his boldest preachers and evangelists. Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and was empowered to live fully into his purposes for God. What is God calling you to do for God’s Kingdom? What is your role in continuing the movement begun by Jesus, which we call the Church? Know that God can use you! You may not feel like you have what it takes because of your past, but Peter is an example of someone whose greatest failure did not define who God knew he was. Jesus proclaimed him as his rock long before Peter lived into that identity. God has a plan for you as well. The same Spirit which empowered Peter abides in you. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord!
Eastertide Blessings,
Fr. Josh
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Join us for Worship Services
April 21st, 2024 Bulletins
In-person only
Live-streaming and Children's Chapel available
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Meet Martha S. Wright, M.Div.-Our New Postulant in Residence!
Martha will be joining us effective Sunday, April 14th, and be with us till Spring of 2025.
She will be preaching, teaching and will perform many of the duties of our Priests. We are so excited to welcome her!
Here is a little bit about her, so you can get to know her before she arrives:
She was the youngest of four, born in Auburn, AL. After her mother’s death when she was eight and her father’s remarriage when she was 9, she found herself to be the youngest of seven children. It took her well into her thirties before she grew out of the role of ‘the baby of the family’ and was able to convince her siblings to refer to her as the youngest!
She graduated from Candler, and was ordained a United Methodist minister in 1983, and received an Episcopal appointment back in the AL-West FL annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. She served two years in the parish before returning to Atlanta and beginning the educational process of becoming an ACPE Certified Educator of clinical pastoral education. She presently works as an ACPE Certified Educator at Northeast Georgia Health System.
She helps train pastors, lay people, and religious leaders from other denominations and faiths to be better equipped to offer pastoral or spiritual care to people who are hurting. She has been an associate on staff and a Pastor-in-Charge, serving churches as small as ten active members and as large as 2,700 active members. She has served as chaplain and/or educator in level 1 trauma centers, retirement centers, children's hospitals, a rural county hospital and an inner-city ministry working with people who were unsheltered and marginalized. She regards her ministry as hospitality, and she has been blessed by the hospitality of others.
Her hobbies include making stained glass pieces, throwing pottery, painting, weightlifting, and swimming. Her greatest joy has been the honor and privilege of raising and being the mother of two wonderful boys. Her oldest son is a financial advisor and has recently married. Her heart was blessed by her youngest son and broken by his death seven years ago when he was 21. Through that and other losses and trials, she has come to know the truth of a quote from St. John of the Cross. He said, “I saw a river upon which all souls must cross, and the river’s name was Pain. Then I saw a boat carrying all said souls across that river, and the boat’s name was Love.”
She prays for the grace to share that Love with others.
Welcome to the St. Aidan's family, Martha!
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Meddling’s & Pedalings
Choral Workshop with Lynn Swanson
Dear Friends,
On Saturday, April 20th, from 10am-1pm. your choir is learning to conduct itself accordingly—literally! We are extremely fortunate and beyond excited to welcome back Lynn Swanson to St. Aidan’s! Lynn is a dear friend and colleague of both Dr. Norma Raybon and me. She currently serves as Director of Music/Organist at Grace Episcopal in Gainesville, and she is also the long-time conductor of the New South Festival Singers. Lynn Swanson is regarded as one of the most respected choral directors today, specializing in choral pedagogy: warm-ups, pitch, blend and chanting. Plus, she’s downright fun! Any and all are welcome to come observe the workshop, especially if you have an interest in joining the ranks. There is no charge for this event.
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Lynn Swanson
ORGANIST/CHOIR DIRECTOR
Ms. Swanson is Music Director & Organist of Grace Episcopal Church, as well as Director of the New South Festival Singers and the Cobb Summer Singers. A native of the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Georgia, she holds the Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance from Shorter University, and the Master of Music Education in Choral Pedagogy from the University of Kansas.
Ms. Swanson is one of the most consequential leaders in the nearly four-decade history of the William Baker Choral Foundation. She has enjoyed a significant international career, serving as Associate Organist of the Kronberg Evangelical Church, Kronberg, Germany and Christ the King Anglican Church, Frankfurt, Germany. Her position also included a choral performance in the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral and organ/choral performance at the American Cathedral in Paris. Significant church positions where she has served as Music Director and as Organist/Choirmaster, include All Saints Cathedral in Milwaukee, St. Benedict’s Episcopal Church in Smyrna, Georgia, and Due West United Methodist Church in Marietta. Under her direction, the Grace Church Parish Choir will serve as Choir-in-Residence at Exeter Cathedral, England in August 2024.
From 2017-2018 she served as Assistant Director of the Zhuhai Classical Children’s Choir in Zhuhai, China, near Hong Kong. During her lauded tenure there she conducted the chorus on national television as part of the Tenth Annual International Chamber Music Festival of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. While in residence in China, she traveled to the city of Wuhan where she served as Artist-in-Residence at the Hong An Tian Thai Temple Monastery. During her three-week tenure she prepared the 60 voice Monastery Choir for their first performance at the Beijing International Choral Competition 2018. The choir performed Italian motets, anthems in Latin, English and Chinese. The choir was awarded gold medals for their inaugural performance by adjudicators from around the world.
Ms. Swanson served a number of leading positions with the Choral Foundation from 2006-2018. She founded the Cobb Summer Singers in 2006, the Northside Young Singers in 2008, the Cobb Festival Singers in 2009, and the Institute for Healthy Singing in 2015. She served as associate director of the Choral Foundation’s original ensemble, now called The New South Festival Singers, from 2010 to 2015, before her appointment as the second music director of the ensemble in 2015, a position she held until 2017. Lynn Swanson co-created the Summer Singers of Lee’s Summit in 2014 and served as Executive Associate Music Director of the Choral Foundation from 2011-2017. Her choirs have recorded three albums: Between Heaven and Earth, Live in Charleston, and Legacies of Light.
From 2017-2019, Ms. Swanson’s blog, DevelopingVoices, was featured as the headline blog each Tuesday on ChoralNet.org, The American Choral Directors Association’s daily newsletter. Her articles were all research based bringing new findings on the science behind the voice to aid fellow singers and choral directors around the world.
Ms. Swanson’s conducting portfolio of choral-orchestral masterworks is extensive, including Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, Bach: Mass in B Minor, Magnificat, Christ lag in todesbanden, and Wachet auf; Faure: Requiem; Handel: Messiah, Israel in Egypt, Dettingen Te Deum and Coronation Anthems, Mozart: Coronation Mass, Great Mass in C Minor, Solemn Vespers Missa Brevis in D, Mass in D Beethoven: Mass in C and Mendelssohn: Elijah, Saint-Saëns: Christmas Oratorio along with many other works. Collaborations have involved musicians from the Kansas City Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Kazinetti String Quartet.
Ms. Swanson is a member of the Mu Phi Epsilon Fraternity and the American Choral Directors Association.
Most sincerely, your Choir Director and friend,
Charles Higgs
404-563-9270
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Registration is open for this year's Vacation Bible School!
The link to register your children is:
VBS will be held from 9-12 Monday, June 3rd to Friday, June 7th. We would LOVE to have your kids attend!
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The St. Aidan's family is cordially invited to attend Savannah Simmons' graduation party on Saturday, May 18th, 2024, at 1:30 PM. The reception will be held in Burtenshaw Hall. |
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Announcements
Pick up a St. Aidan's magnet for your car-we have one for each of you in the Narthex! Show your love for our church and church family!
Backpacks of Love-Thank you St Aidan’s for this past Sunday's donations. Sunday May 12 will be our last collection day for this school year. The ever OPEN barrel will remain in the Narthex until Monday May 13, and we’ll start collecting food again after Labor Day in September.
Tax deductible monetary donations can be made to the North Georgia Community Foundation at:
FBO Backpacks of Love, 340 Jessie Jewell Parkway SE, Suite 605, Gainesville, GA 30501
Thank you for your support!
Marty Mcpherson and the Backpacks of Love team
Yard Sale Help Needed: We need help with pricing items for the yard sale. Any dates and times you are free, we will take the help. For more information, please contact Reid at (678) 613-3686.
Confession -Available every Wednesday from 2-4pm
Holy Land Pilgrimage | Coming Spring 2025
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We pray blessings on the following people who have birthdays this week:
Walker Hembree, Caroline Eastabrooks, Facus Dokubo,
Jay Reilly, Ann Dancy, Jess Heald and Mark Ledford
Also, Happy Anniversary and blessings to the following people celebrating their anniversary this week:
Jess and Suzy Heald (belated--it was last week :))
Debbie and Reid Parkinson
If we missed your birthday or anniversary, this is a good reminder to add that information to Realm.
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A Grief Support Program
Grief Group has started to meet each Thursday from 10-11 am in the back of the sanctuary. Please join us if this would be meaningful to you.
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Megan O'Brien has been helping grievers for the past 11 years move forward in their pain. Originally from South Carolina, Megan moved out to the West Coast, and finished her degree at the University of Washington and continued to earn her Master's in Counseling Psychology from Dominican University of California. She worked various internships before she realized her passion for working with the bereaved. She previously worked at By the Bay Health in the San Francisco area, supporting grievers one on one, and she also facilitated grief support groups. Once the pandemic hit, Megan created her own Facebook community called Embrace Life Again. She strengthens her community by weekly grief lives and online grief workshops. This work is very personal to Megan as her Dad died when she was in 7th grade. |
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“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.” Jeremiah 29:12
PRAYER CONCERNS:
THOSE WHO HAVE PASSED:
Debbie Phillips, beloved cousin of Kathy Bump
PRAYER CONCERNS:
Kathy Bump and the Phillips Family & Friends
Inocencia Sanchez, beloved Mother of Jaime
Ryan Trosper, friend of Glenda
Dr. Tom Reynolds, father of Tom Reynolds
Marissa and daughter
Rosemary O’Donnell, friend of Laurie Cronley
Tandra’s daughter with serious health issues, friend of Anita
Jean Kelleher
Pat Bull
Sandy Thomas
Ric, friend of Gail Hurley
Wiersma Family, friends of Elizabeth Alvarez
Mark MacAllaster, friend of Elizabeth Alvarez
Patrick Coleman, friend of Mike Smith
Noah Pope, son of Leyna and Ryan Pope
Michael Miracle, friend of Corrine Hoffstetter
Amy Cozad, friend of Kerry Carter
MaryAnn Masson, friend of Melanie Joyce
Jeff Heal, friend of Charles
Roy Bar Sela and the Sela Family in Israel
LONG TERM CONCERNS:
Jason Parker, Kathy Bump’s son-in-law
Linda & Bob Slocum, friend of Pat Bull
Ron Woodard, brother of Jo Woodard
Louise Veron, Karen Vernon’s Mother-in-law
Camille Johnson
Andy Miller, Cathy Biondi’s brother
Joan Cowart
John Lehigh
Marvin Cherry (aka Tripp), brother of Christy Thompson
Amber Nance, niece of Phyllis Arshun
MaryDana Goldstein, friend of Gail Hurley
Scott Yapp and wife Patti, friend of Hazel
Richard Secord, friend of Tom Reynolds
Gretchen Blackwell, Roy, and Rory: friends of Heidi Reynolds
Gail Zelley, Sister-in-law of Laura Van Riper
Peggy McPherson
Debbie Kulick, friend of Marty McPherson
Richie, friend of Keith Richards
Deb Barcus, neighbors of Kristin Eastabrooks
Jeff Smith, friend of Keith Richards
Candace Porche, wife of Celeste Gravois nephew
Hikari, friend of Bonnie Olentine
Conor Griffin, grandson of Joe and Marilyn Rich
Katie Thielens
Jane Adams
The Ledford Family-Mark Ledford, Terry Ledford and Cozy
St. Aidan’s Church Family
FOR OUR HEALTHCARE WORKERS AND FIRST RESPONDERS:
Mikayla Van Riper, Ultrasound Tech N’Side, daughter-in-law of Laura Van Riper; Hannah Collins, RN & Case Worker at Children’s Healthcare, daughter of Anita Hilbun; Evelyn Tran, EMT Grady Hospital; Dr. Kasey Shapp-Reilly, OBGYN, Susan and Jay Reilly’s daughter-in-law; Anne Dickson, RN-N’Side ER, daughter of Evelyn Goodendorf; Will Hembree, EMT at Grady EMS, son of Wade and Melanie; Dr. Heidi Moore; Dr. Greg Melnikoff; Emma Campbell, RN at Northside-Gwinnett, Trauma Unit, and Grace Campbell, RN NICU at Children’s Hosp., Granddaughters of Bonnie Moore; Caroline Eastabrooks Cochran, RN; Dr. Richard Shack; Sam Biondi Jakubiszak, OT, daughter of Cathy & Daryl Biondi.
St. Aidan’s Prayer Warriors pray for all listed below as part of their commitment to service and prayer. Names listed under prayer concerns appear for six weeks. Long Term Concerns, Healthcare Workers and First Responders continually appear.
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